Not all work!

This has been a very good weekend and we even managed to enjoy 2 happy hours! It’s not all boat jobs – even though it does feel like that at times.

Starting on Friday, Mark worked on cleaning our 3 fuel tanks. The worst tank is our centre tank which sits under the engine in the bilge. The problem with this tank is that it’s hatch is level with the top of the bilge so water can flow over this hatch, allowing water to get into the diesel fuel (not a good thing). It’s been a few years since Mark suctioned out the water (which drops to the bottom) from this tank. This turned out to be a much bigger job then expected. There was a lot of water in the tank and getting the little pump down low enough to suck up the water was a major challenge. It took several hours to do just the one tank.

The next job for Friday was bringing the new battery onboard and installing it. The battery weighs over 100lbs so we used the main halyard and the spinnaker halyard to hoist it off the pier and then lower it into the space just below the main cabin ladder. Our enclosure had to be moved to allow the battery to go down the companionway. This job also took a few hours and we were just reconnecting the enclosure when Jane and Steve arrived for happy hour! It was great to relax with them and chat about all our collective boat jobs. They are getting much closer to splashing their boat and hopefully it will only be a few more days before they are on the pier.

Saturday’s jobs involved more fuel tank cleaning, mast and boom polishing, laundry and probably a few more jobs I’ve forgotten about. It was a good day and the weather was perfect for outside work – sunny and warm! At 4pm we quit for the day and had our 2nd happy hour – this time at Jane and Steve’s place. We were joined by 2 other Canadians, Brenda and Rob, so it was a really nice visit.

Today was a fairly easy job day. Mark worked on some engine maintenance and he cleaned the heat exchanger on the main engine with barnacle buster (got to love that name!). I spent some time trying to fix our main cabin hatch (it’s seized up) with no luck and we did some shopping in the afternoon. It was another beautiful day down here and we managed to get a walk in late this afternoon.